Just to refresh: my cousin Aria turned this past January 2nd, and her parents, my Uncle Kyle and his fiancé Marlena, asked me to make Aria’s birthday cakes :D It was a rainbow/unicorn-themed party, and they wanted a big cake for the guests and a miniature smash cake for the lil' munchkin. I was more than happy to oblige. No refined sugar cake for baby, but free reign otherwise. Time to have some fun! |
<---- See that cookbook on the top of the pile? Cakes By Melissa, AKA one of the best presents I got for Christmas this year! Especially for someone who needed to test out a bunch of cake recipes relatively quickly. (On second thought, most of my favorite presents this year were baking-specific cookbooks haha.) This book was a game-changer, and I decided that the baby cake had to be tie-dyed and that the big cake was going to be Neapolitan-flavored: chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry layers. Should satisfy everyone's tastes, right? Pro-tip #1: Bake your cake layers in large, deep-sided sheet pans. |
This might seem like a silly tip; they make cake pans for a reason, right? But if you bake a large sheet of cake, it more often than not produces an even rise across the entire layer. And you can cut all of your layers to the exact same diameter, plus have extra for mini cakes and taste-testing! No complaints there. |
I baked all of the layers, cut all of my rounds with these things, then froze them individually wrapped in plastic. I made vanilla and strawberry frostings following Melissa's recipes, but decided to use a chocolate pudding frosting that I got from an LA Times article for my chocolate layer (it's my favorite). We transported all of the layers and frostings to my dad's house in NJ the day before the birthday party, baked the shortbread cookie horn and ears, and began assembling and decorating. Dan was absolutely instrumental; these cakes were just as much his creation as they were mine. Thanks honey, and thank you Dad for letting me completely take over your kitchen for two straight days! Love you both :)
While I was smoothing out the crumb coat and painting the cookie parts with edible metallic dust, Dan and my sister Hayley dyed the buttercream and whipped cream frostings for me. If I'd had larger piping bags/nozzles we could've had bigger swirls, but I still think these cakes came out absolutely adorable. |
Special shoutout to Hayleycakes and Cookies on Instagram for our unicorn cake inspiration and your super helpful behind-the-scenes videos!
So while sometimes it was stressful, these cakes were 1000000% worth the effort. Kyle and Marlena loved them, as did the rest of the party, and Dan and I were proud of ourselves for making something that wasn't too far off our original target. What a way to welcome the new year, seeing little Aria tear into her very first cake :) I leave you with this shot of a slice of the big unicorn cake, just so you can be that much more jealous that you weren't there to taste it :p Cheers everyone, and best wishes for your 2018!